The Research On Minors Of The Gulag

Generally speaking, Gulag existed in the Soviet Union between1918and1960. Itmainly included labor camps, special labor camps, correctional, criminals’ andpolitical prisoners’ prisons, as well as the penal colony areas which consist of avariety different organizations. It almost covers all the Soviet Penal institutions. Theimportant functions of it reflected in the maintenance of the Soviet union’s nationalsecurity, consolidate the social stability, as well as played an important role in thesocialist economy, on the other hand it also brought enduring harm to the people andthe Soviet society, especially to the physical and mental health of minors during along time of the period of the Soviet union. This article is based on a large amount ofhistorical data, analyses the history of the gulag, explores the root of minors in thegulag, and analyses the existence dilemma of minors in the gulag and the influence on their later life. This paper is mainly divided into three parts:The first part mainly research on the evolution of the gulag name and its meaning,then introduce a gulag development history.Gulag, initially is short for administration of the Soviet labor camp management,belonging to the Soviet union national political security bureau administration; afterthat the Soviet labor camp’s name changed several times----the people of the Sovietunion committee of the national political security bureau administration labor camp,the Soviet union to the commissioner of labor camp residents and prison managementbureau, the Soviet union to the commissioner of labor administration and labor campresidents, the Soviet union, the interior labor camps and re-education through laboradministration of hospital management, the Soviet labor camp battalion of the justicedepartment and the re-education through labor administration of hospital management,the interior ministry, labor camps and re-education through labor administration ofhospital management, the interior ministry prison management administration.Although full name of the gulag changed many times, it never changed its short namewhich has been called the gulag. Narrow sense speaking, the gulag only means theSoviet gulag hard labor camp management administration of the government agencies,but in this article we consider the gulag in the broad way. The generalized speaking gulag existed in the Soviet union between1918and1960, mainly including laborcamps, special labor camps, correctional, criminals’ and political prisoners’ prisons, aswell as the penal colony areas which consist of a variety of different organizations,and it almost covers all the Soviet Penal institutions.Gulag originated from Lenin in Siberia in1918, which established a labor camp tolock up some criminals and political prisoners and some prisoners from war. Sincethen it was taken over by the Chukka and made it perfect than before; in1930, theynamed it as "gulag", thereafter it gradually developed into a large system whichcontains most of the Soviet union’s large serving institutions, then expressly revokedby the Soviet government in1960.The second part mainly explores the root causes of minors in the gulag.Minors appearing in the gulag mainly due to the early establishment of Sovietregime, and the street children problems came with it. Street children problems whichhaven’t been solved effectively has become a serious juvenile delinquency. Under theStalin terror suppression policies of the government, the street children, juveniledelinquents and other youth political prisoners were sent to the gulag, which came tobe the main source of minors in the gulag prisoners, on the other hand, great patrioticwar and the harsh law treatment contributed to the suffering of the minors in gulag, so that the members of minors massive increased. In addition, a number of children alsobeing given birth from the prisoners in the gulag, they were been branded with themarks of the gulag when they were birthed in the world.The group of street children in the period of Soviet-era is the first source of thegulag minors. The Soviet government attempted to solve the problem of streetchildren, however, it was proved to be ineffective. Hence the street children problemwas getting worse and gradually evolved into juvenile delinquency. Although Stalin’sgovernment carried out a series of terrorist policies made a great contributions tosocial stability and development of socialist economy in some degree, but fromanother perspective, the government’s agricultural collectivization, the blow of richpeasants, mass exile, the national migration and purge repression relentlessly sendmillions of minors to gulag; Patriotic war also brought huge disaster to the Sovietunion minors, many teenagers who came back from camp flee teens were put intoconcentration camps as spies and traitors; there are also a large number children whowere too young to go the war were homeless because parents died on the battlefield,and at last were sent to the gulag. The Soviet law punishment was so harsh towards aminor that it neglected the fact that minors should have tolerance and caring, whichalso prompted the minor number of gulag greatly increased. Besides, the high pregnancy rates towards women in the gulag also promoted the juvenile team biggerin the gulag.The third part analyzes the existence dilemma of minors in the gulag, explorestheir psychological state, and then analyses its profound influence after prison lifetoward the minors.The gulag’s children were not being protected towards the basic living needs;diseases frequently appeared and wantonly infected around the gulag,but the hospitalsof gulag’s would not be able to prevent and cure the disease, on the other hand, theeducation rights were not also being guaranteed, plus the hard work and spiritualdistress, therefore most minors died of some kind of that reasons.Adults in the gulag, due to physical and psychological immature, minors always inthe disadvantaged position, they suffered lots of torture and abuse from adultprisoners frequently. On the one hand, they were in order to be survived in the gulag,on the other hand, it’s due to some kind of blind worship towards the leader ofprisoners, minors quickly learned that strength made sense towards the poison. Thenthey showed the cruelty and amazingly strong retaliation; they united the collectivepower to make full use of camouflage, flexibility to fight against the abuse andpersecution of adult prisoners and administrator. In this fight, the adults gradually lost the minors moral bottom line, showed fearless to anyone and anything; they even losttheir innocence and goodness, manifested the brutal, aggressive and destructive, andat last twisted their souls.Some parts of the gulag minors had the honor to look forward the day when theywent out the jail. When they were out of the gulag, they suddenly found that theywere not be accepted by the normal society; the indifference, rejection and disdain ofthe society made the gulag’s people felt so difficult to survive in the society; Some ofthem chose to flee into the mountain forests which were far away from the crowd, andspent their lives in fear.There are also a large number of people, who chose to staynear the gulag and labored there; Other persons chose to continue the living style ofthe gulag and worked on the criminal astray. The core of leadership of the RussianMafia party "taboo" showed these person’s shadows.In a word, the Soviet gulag had made a great contribution towards social stabilityand economic development, but also brought grant disasters to the people and theSoviet society. To research the gulag minor problems, discuss the essence of the gulag,and explore the root causes of minors in the gulag, face to the gulag minors in thesurvival predicament, would help to promote the microcosmic research ofsoviet-occupied gulag and sum up the experience of the communist movement.